Former football player Eric LeGrand said Rutgers University offered him a speaking engagement at upcoming commencement and then withdrew the invitation, but the school announced Tuesday that he will indeed be the speaker at graduation on May 18.

University president Robert Barchi said it was all of big misunderstanding.

"Eric LeGrand will speak at our Commencement and personally receive his degree from me as a representative of the Class of 2014," Rutgers president Robert Barchi said in a statement. "It was never our intention that Eric would be the only speaker. We have resolved that miscommunication and are delighted to have him participate."

LeGrand, who was paralyzed from the neck down from injuries sustained making a tackle on a kickoff in October 2010, became an inspiring picture of perseverance and told USA Today he was initially offered the speaking gig by Gregory Jackson, chief of staff for Barchi.

That call came Saturday, and LeGrand anxiously announced his opportunity to friends, family and former teammates.

"Starting in 2005, being recruited by Rutgers and what it meant to me to play here and go to school here," LeGrand told the paper. "And then the way everybody supported me through my injury, I was just going to give inspirational words about how they should attack life. All the things I've learned so far. All the (graduates), they're my age so I was going to try to (say) words they could remember, words that would inspire them to do great things in life."

LeGrand said athletic director Julie Hermann -- and not Jackson -- phoned Monday to inform him Rutgers chose to go in another direction. Hours later, the university announced former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean as the keynote speaker at the ceremony.

LeGrand expressed his disappointment on Twitter.

"Rutgers offered me the commencement speech this weekend and I was going to accept but they decided to go other ways for political reasons," he said.

LeGrand graduated in January with a degree in labor studies. His No. 52 jersey is retired in the very football stadium where the graduation will take place.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on tap for the keynote address but previously withdrew after protests stemming from her role as security adviser to George W. Bush during multiple wars.

The university's Board of Governors gave input and said Barchi picked Kean without input from faculty or students, according to USA Today.

"I'm very upset about it," LeGrand said before the reversal on Tuesday. "I was all excited all weekend thinking about what I was going to say. It's rough."